Thursday, December 18, 2014

Cuba and North Korea

We should keep in mind that we are talking about the actions of a private company interested, we would think, in profits rather than politics. Sony is a Japanese multinational corporation, of which Sony Pictures Entertainment is a part. The movie in question, The Interview, is a Hollywood film with American actors. Van draws the parallel to Rushdie. That seems appropriate. Sony likely figured they could expect no help or support from the American government. I'm sure that's true.

The Founders saw the role of the federal government as limited, with only a few responsibilities. Perhaps chief among those would be defending its citizens from foreign threats. That can be a tough job. It's much easier to protect the EBT cards of the voting class or to protect our children from education by forcing adoption of Common Core or protect the health care monopolies with Obamacare.

Sony can do what they want. The movie is probably monumentally stupid anyway. I certainly wasn't going to go see it. For all I know, they may have made a deal with the Nork regime just to generate some interest.

Then there is Cuba. We who are old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis find normalization of relations with the Castros disconcerting. It just doesn't seem right.

Cuba was a Soviet satellite country. There's no longer a USSR -- theoretically. Given the economic turmoil in Russia, one suspects that the Cubans are not getting much help from Putin right now. The timing of the Obama regime's embrace of the Castro regime adds to the unease. Is Obama seeking to bail out fellow socialist despots?

On the other hand, I'm not sure the embargo makes sense anymore. It probably should have ended after the Soviet Union collapsed. I don't think it's comparable to the Berlin Wall (from Too Much Bourbon, Donna), but there are reasonable arguments for normalization. I'm not terribly upset about it, but I find that I cannot ever trust Obama to be working in the interests of my country. I remain suspicious.

Quotables

The true Christian should not resign himself to the inevitable: he should trust in the impertinence of a repeated prayer. -- Don Colacho

Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort. -- Robert A. Heinlein

When law and morality are in contradiction, the citizen finds himself in the cruel dilemma of either losing his moral sense or of losing respect for the law -- Bastiat

The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy.

If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military. The hired servants of our rulers.

Only the government -- and a few outlaws.

I intend to be among the outlaws.--Edward Abbey from “The Right to Arms”

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